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English Language

Explore our Undergraduate English Language Courses

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2nd

Value added: Languages & Linguistics

Guardian University Guide 2023

Top 25

for Student Experience: English

Times & Sunday Times: Good University Guide

Why Study English Language?

Our introductory and advanced modules will give you a strong foundational background and important scientific insight into the nature, structure and use of language, as well as into the history of English and sociolinguistics (the relationship between language and society).

Our course will give you the opportunity to study a wide range of subjects and allow you to explore and develop your interests and specializations. In your third year we offer a wide range of exciting 3rd year specialized modules that allows students to explore, develop and refine their research interests and expertise and to focus on those topics and questions that interest you the most. For the Year 3 dissertation project, we offer students the opportunity and support to develop their own projects, with attention given to employability or advanced graduate study. Our staff does its best to accommodate any dissertation topic that can be reasonably supported by our research expertise.

We are a vibrant, accessible, friendly department with staff committed to high-quality teaching, excellent student experience, strong pastoral support, and cutting-edge research throughout the duration of your studies. Our department also has an excellent peer guide support system to help you when you arrive in your 1st year, to get settled in and acquainted with campus life, and a student representative system that provides feedback on our modules, student experience and the quality of our degrees for the duration of your undergraduate degree. We are passionate about teaching and ensuring that our English language students gain excellent skills in critical thinking, analysis, presentation skills and research.

Our students also benefit from a state-of-the-art learning facility which include a professional grade sound / recording studio (our Speech laboratory), an eye tracking laboratory, and an event-related potential (ERP) laboratory and a corpus-linguistics resource facility.  We also have audio and video equipment that can be checked out for field work.  In addition to these resources, our departmental student society, the Bangor Linguistics Society (BLS), hosts both a study space and an extensive collection of books on Linguistics and English Language in its office which are conveniently located in the same building as our staff offices and seminar room. The BLS also hosts an annual David Crystal Day when Professor David Crystal, the world's foremost authority on the English language gives classes to students in the School

Our English Language course also provides opportunities for you to focus on the issues of teaching English and/or Welsh linguistics and bilingualism preparing you for specific career opportunities in those fields (some of which may require additional training).

Watch - An interview with linguist David Crystal OBE

Erin, a first-year student, interviews world-renowned linguist David Crystal OBE, author of the Encyclopaedia of the English Language, to find out his thoughts on the exciting, changing world of English Language.

STUDENT PROFILE Sophie James

BA English Language and French

Sophie studies English Language and French through the medium of Welsh at the School of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics.

Do you have a question about life as a Bangor University student? Our ambassadors will be happy to help you find the answer.

They can tell you more about studying here, about the amazing Clubs and Societies we have, and how they made friends and settled in to life at university as an English Language student. 

 

If you have any questions about the course, our lecturers are on hand to help. Below are some examples of frequently asked questions. Can you think of any more? 

  • What are the qualities of a successful English Language student at Bangor?
  • How can I prepare myself to study English Language student at Bangor?
  • How will I know that English Language at Bangor is the right choice for me?

Our Research in English Language

We have an excellent record of research excellence in a wide range of areas. We have an active and diverse research profile that is recognised internationally, with specialisms including:

  • 1st and 2nd language development
  • TESOL and SLA language teaching pedagogy
  • Discourse analysis
  • Language disorders and atypical language development
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Corpus linguistics
  • Language and communication
  • Language technologies / Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Historical linguistics
  • Language variation and change
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Language, gender and power
  • Contested languages, bilingualism and multilingualism
  • Processing and acquisition of prosody and syntax
  • Temporal language and the construal of time
  • Figurative language and the mental organization of human experience
  • Welsh language dialectology, variation and change

The world-class quality of research in the English Language and Linguistics carried out at Bangor University has been confirmed by the 2014 REF (Research Excellence Framework), the most recent national assessment of research quality.

Our staff also have expertise and provide support for the following:

  • Statistical software such as:  SPSS, R-Statistics and Excel.
  • Experimental psychology software such as E-Prime, GORILLA Experiment Builder, Open Sesame and Webexp.
  • Acoustic and phonetic analysis software such as: Audacity, Praat, and SIL Speech Analyzer
  • Standardised psychometric /language tests (e.g., EVT, BPVS, NARA, WISC, K-BIT, TROG, CELF)
  • A wide range of specialized corpora and concordance software including CHILDES and CLAN
  • Experimental research using event-related potential (ERP) and eye tracking machines
  • A professional grade recording booth and equipment
  • Language technologies in conjunction with Bangor’s Language Technologies Unit and Computer Science Department

Most importantly, our research informs our teaching provision at all levels. Added to that we are proud of a vibrant research environment as attested by the various events held throughout the year. In addition to individual talks and research seminars, we also hold workshops and host large conferences. Students are encouraged to get involved and be a part of this lively community.

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